“My wife called and was crying and she said ‘Your picture is in the paper,’” he recalled.

An Associated Press photographer snapped the photo.

“I’d gone on a break after a very troubling find,” said Patrick, of Waynesville.

It was a troubling find on a terrible mission.

“I had a dog that was trained for live and deceased recovery,” he said.

That’s why Patrick, who worked for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, went to Ground Zero.

“I had the right tool at the right time, unfortunately for the wrong job,” he said.

In the week and a half he was in New York, he slept in a public school auditorium with his dog.

On Wednesday, 18 years later, school children who weren’t alive during Patrick’s mission joined Warren County fire and EMS personnel and the police chiefs association for a ceremony near the Warren County Courthouse.

“This is for the younger generation that was not around,” Patrick said.

However, they were born into a world forever changed by the scenes Patrick, and so many others, will never forget.

This was just one of many 9/11 remembrance ceremonies throughout the region.